Coming up: Gustavo Aceves, Lapidarium, 2 - 10 May

Looking for something more productive to do this weekend than nursing your May 1st hangover? Head to the Brandenburg Gate, where Mexican artist Gustavo Aceves will be showcasing his sculpture exhibition, Lapidarium. Timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the exhibition will run from the 2nd to the 10th May, and has been brought to Berlin in collaboration with Kulturprojekte Berlin, Jarmuschek + Partner and The Embassy of Mexico, Berlin.

Six years in the making, Aceves’ project tackles the age-old yet increasingly prominent topic of migration. It features a series of horses constructed in marble, bronze, granite, iron and resin, presented in various stages of decay and destruction. They are at once huge and powerful, yet vulnerable, fragile, and broken, their fragmented forms simultaneously juxtaposing a sense of hope and movement and progression with that of loss and death. To communicate something of the eclectic nature of our shared history of migration, Aceves has incorporated into the project a plethora of social, cultural, political and artistic references, most notably the boat of Charon from Hades’ Underworld and the Trojan Horse from Greek mythology. The centrepiece of the Berlin exhibition will include a bronze horse covered in serial numbers, as well as a more abstract granite horse, constructed with human skulls and featuring a figure chiselled in the style of African tribal sculpture on its neck. The horses are quite literally a hash of materials and artistic styles, representing the often violent clash of cultures and ideas that results from migration.

Could Lapidarium be arriving in Berlin at a more fitting moment? With the recent deaths of hundreds of migrants off the coast of Italy, Aceves’ project will act as a stark reminder of an issue that is as relevant today as ever. In a more general sense, the project will also act as a good point of discussion for those interested in Berlin’s prevailing popularity as a migration hotspot.

Lapidarium will tour major cities around the world until 2017, including Venice, London, Beijing and Mexico City. The exhibition will evolve continuously, nicely mimicking the unpredictable yet adaptable nature of a world in flux. Go and see it now while you can.